Will glanced to the door again, a worried look crossing his face, and Patrick opened his mouth to ask what he was waiting for when the door opened.
And in walked Darren.
Well, fuck.
Darren looked around the shop until his gaze landed on Will, and he smiled. There was absolutely nothing fake about Darren’s smile, and Patrick suddenly felt sick. He’d been such a fucking idiot to think for one minute that Will had been missing him the way he had missed Will.
He cleared his throat, forcing Will to look round at him with an apology written all over his face. Anger curled in Patrick’s belly, licking up his spine and making him shake with it. Why the hell had Will brought him here?
“Okay, then. I see you’ve got company, so I’ll leave you to it. Nice seeing you again, Will. Take care.” Patrick was almost proud of the way he kept it together. If it wasn’t for the slight tremor in his hands, it’d almost look like he didn’t care.
“Patrick, wait.” Will reached out and grasped Patrick’s wrist, fingers tight enough to pull him back a little. He glanced at Darren, nearly at their table now, and then back at Patrick. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d be here, or I would never have—”
“It’s fine. I get it.” He tugged his hand out of Will’s grip.
“No, it’s not what—”
“Darren.” Patrick nodded at Darren as he sat down.
“Patrick.” Darren looked between them curiously, and Patrick needed to be gone.
He didn’t bother saying anything else, not giving a fuck if that was rude or not. He needed to leave. He marched back over toward Christian, gestured in the direction of the back room, then hurried to get the door shut before slumping against it.
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Patrick drew in a shaky breath and pushed the heels of his palms against his eyes. He would not fucking cry. He and Will had never been together after all.
So why did it hurt so much?
A soft knock on the door startled him enough that Patrick stumbled against the table behind him and knocked over one of the chairs.
“Hey.” Christian opened the door and poked his head inside, frowning when he saw Patrick. “You okay?”
Patrick sighed and scrubbed at his face before leaning down to pick up the chair. “Yeah, I guess. Just feel like a bit of a dick.”
Christian slipped inside the room and closed the door behind him. “So… that was Will and…?”
“His ex-boyfriend,Darren.” Patrick kind of spat the word out, and Christian winced.
“Okaaay… say no more.” He gave Patrick’s shoulder a squeeze before pulling him in for a quick hug. “I need to get back out there before I get fired.”
“God, sorry.” Patrick took a deep breath and pulled himself together. “I’ll be out in a sec.” This was ridiculous. So Will was back with Darren; it made no difference to Patrick.
When he thought about it rationally, he had nothing to be angry about and that made the whole thing ten times worse. Shit, he’d overreacted. But why the hell had Will arranged to meet his ex in Patrick’s coffee shop?
That fact did piss him off, he decided, and he had every right to feel like that. But he had no desire to get into an argument about it. In fact Patrick had no wish to speak to Will at all at the moment.
He straightened his uniform, and headed back out, determined to handle things better this time around.
As it turned out, he didn’t need to worry. Will and Darren had gone, and Patrick was left feeling a mix of relief and disappointment.
Fuck his life.
The rest of his shift passed relatively uneventfully, and Patrick was tired and wrung out by the time they closed up.
“Fancy getting a drink?” Christian nudged him in the side as he locked up after them. “You look like you could do with one.”
Patrick hadn’t been out much in the past two weeks—a couple of times with Christian and once with Ben. But it had been a crap day. “Yeah, you know what? I really fucking do.” He sent Ben a quick text, letting him know he was going out after work and not to wait up, then followed Christian to the pub over the road.
